PHL100Y1 Lecture Notes - Distributive Property, Penang Island, Mpeg-4 Part 14
Document Summary
[1] the question at issue in the first part of the prolegomena is how pure mathematics is possible. It will help enormously if we get two distinctions under our belt right away. Kant draws a sharp distinction between intuition and understanding. Second, kant talks of both the form and the matter of experience. In this case, any feature that an experience has to satisfy in order to count as that kind of experience is part of its form, otherwise it is part of its matter. Consider the following claim: any physical object is three-dimensional . Well, three-dimensionality is part of the form of our experience of physical objects, since what it is to be a physical object is to occupy (three-dimensional euclidean) space. It is very easy to lose the forest for the trees in kant, so it"s worth reminding ourselves just what he is driving at. Remember, kant wants to establish how mathematics can be both necessary and informative.
